Aeisenbise's Weblog

Reflecting.

aeisenbise — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 21:34:09 +0000

The most difficult essay for me was probably the Campus Complaint essay. This was because I did not have much to complain about. I have been so happy with Ball State and the transition from high school to college has been fairly smooth. The other one that I had trouble writing about was Investigating Academia. I learned a lot about the Visual Communications major that I was exploring and have decided to try to get into the Visual Communications program but when it came to writing all that I had learned, It was very hard for me to find a focus. I wanted to share everything I had learned but realized that not all of it would be relevant.

I also appreciated the Investigating Academia essay because of all that I learned. However, the essay that I appreciated most was Proposal To Solve A Problem. I liked this one the best because I got to pick a subject/problem that interested me and also got to share my opinions on how it can be fixed. I enjoyed thinking through what I would like to see happen.

Comparing Persuasiveness.

aeisenbise — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 21:22:45 +0000

I believe that “The Singer Solution to World Poverty” is the most persuasive. This is because, at the beginning of it, there is a story. The story makes you think, and makes you want to read more and figure out what point the author is trying to make. A story at the beginning also helps to draw the reader in, and to make them interested enough to continue. The other two essays started off in sort of a boring way. They start off with facts. This is fine, but if I were to come across all three of these essays in everyday life, the first two would not hold my attention long enough for me to care what the point was.

I think what I have learned from comparing these essays is that I need to focus more on how my essays start off. I have a hard time thinking of interesting ways to draw people in at the beginning of my essays. Another thing that I have learned is that there should be a good balance of facts AND story telling or fun facts. I tend to go one way or the other in my writing and could improve in this area as well.

Proposal to solve a problem

aeisenbise — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 04:55:38 +0000

The title of the essay that I read was The Christian Paradox: How a Faithful Nation Gets Jesus Wrong. The author is Bill McKibben. In the essay, McKibben talks about how most our supposedly “christian nation” knows nothing of the religion and beliefs within that religion. He gives examples and statistics to support this.

I came up with the problem that I wish to address because of how McKibben talks about america not being into christianity as a bad thing. While I believe that people should have a general knowledge (at least) of all religions, just to not be ignorant, I do not necessarily believe that a deep knowledge of Christianity should be expected of americans. People should not be expected to know about Christianity just because that was the belief of our forefathers. I understand and agree that it was important in the development of our country and I believe that we should observe these beliefs. America, though, is all about freedom. People should be free to believe what they want and should not be expected to know everything about a religion that they do not care about or believe in. We must be careful not to be ignorant about these things.

My solution is not completely developed as of yet. In a perfect world, my solution would be to require a religions class in high school. Part of that solution would be that it is taught in a purely informational way, not in a persuasive or biased way. I think the information and history of the religions should just be laid out and students would be able to take from it what they wanted. In the world we live in today, some teacher or some student would ruin it by being biased.

Re-seeing and Reshaping.

aeisenbise — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 23:52:18 +0000

I think I will focus more on what students can do for themselves in order to not be lost on the first day of classes. The problem I addressed will be different because I’m choosing to focus on what the students can do instead of the faculty of Ball State. Basically what I want to do with the essay is to turn it around to where I give suggestions about what incoming students can do to prepare themselves to successfully navigate Ball State’s campus. In the original essay, I focused on things that Ball State could do but I now realize that the things I suggested would not be as effective as I had once thought. I will remove suggestions to Ball State and add helpful suggestions on how to be prepared for the first day of classes.

Purpose, Audience, and Genre.

aeisenbise — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 02:56:25 +0000

My Purpose:

The purpose of my research paper is to let people know all the kinds of things you can do with a Visual Communications major.

My Audience:

My audience will be college students who have not picked a major, are considering the Visual Communications major, or are confused about what the Visual Communications major entails.

My Genre:

I believe that my research paper should be published in a college newspaper. I believe that, based on my audience, it is the smartest and most effective place to publish it. Since it is geared towards college students, it should be in a place that is easily accessible to them.

Hummer Ad Analysis.

aeisenbise — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 21:14:49 +0000

Act- The mother buys a hummer.

Agent- A mother, skinny, white, timid.

Scene- On a playground, nice sunny day, other kids playing happily.

The car dealership.

Agency- Another mother lets her child cut in line in front of the agents’ child and is very rude about it.

Purpose- The agent feels insignificant, timid, and mad about the other mother’s behavior towards her and wants to regain some sort of control, status or boldness. So she buys a hummer.

The message of this commercial is that Hummers make you feel better. The agent was treated badly by another mother. She handled things timidly by not sticking up for herself or her son. The situation was out of her control and it made her mad, as it should. So she goes out and buys a Hummer so that she can regain a feeling of control and boldness. Bringing out that boldness that she did not show at the playground. Buying the Hummer may have even been a way for her to prove to herself that she is bold and can take care of things.

Negativity of Technology

aeisenbise — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 12:14:29 +0000

Reading Response

aeisenbise — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 12:21:59 +0000

In “Refusing to Hope in a God of Technology”, Jeff Dietrich states that people are too readily accepting technology and will soon forget what face-to-face communication is like. I agree with this. The world only looks at the convenience and benefits that technology brings, we ignore the negative affects. Dietrich also talks about how all this constant changing will leave the poor behind. I believe this is true as well. We cannot possibly expect everyone to be able to keep up with the ever-changing technology. What happens when the intelligent, middle to lower-class individuals aren’t allowed, or able to express their opinions or to be of the technological age we are in? They are left out or at least discouraged. As and example, in high school I wrote a lot of papers, essays, and had to do other activities that were computer related. Most of my teachers would not accept essays that were not typed. A child without access to a computer outside of school would have a hard time completing these assignments. These children would be forced to finish their assignments in class, which would lessen the quality of their work by rushing them to get things done. Also, another problem students face is motivation. If a child has to choose between hurrying to get something done or not getting it done, they are less likely to get their assignments done. While it would be hard for schools to receive enough funding to give every child a laptop or computer, it is the only way to level the playing field for all students. America should be concerned about this. This country should be about including everyone, having equal rights and opportunity. This is not to say that technology should be rejected or shunned. It is a major advantage and convenience for the world. We should accept it, but not rely on it as much as we do now. We can use technology and reap the benefits of it but we need to also be prepared for the negative repercussions and work to provide access to everyone. Technology can be a good thing if we use it the right way.

Summary

aeisenbise — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 10:49:03 +0000

In Refusing to Hope in a God of Technology, Jeff Dietrich is basically saying that people accept technology to easily. He writes of the disadvantages of technology and concludes that there are just as many of these disadvantages as advantages. His fear is that after some time, people will not remember or take part in a “face-to-face” community but will instead rely on the web. He also talks about how he believes that this new age of technology will leave the poor people of the world behind. Dietrich realizes the necessity of technology and therefore his solution is to use the web: but he would like us to use it “confessionally” . What this means is, we need to remember what dangers the web potentially has. He ends with this quote, “We cannot look for happiness to any technological paradise or to any New Earth of outer space, but only to the world as it is, and as we have made it. The only life we may hope to live is here…We can only wait here, where we are, in the world, obedient to it’s processes, patient in its taking away, and all that we deserve of earthly Paradise will come to us.”

About me

aeisenbise — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 21:38:58 +0000

Hi, I’m Amber Eisenbise. I live in Stu East in Menk hall. I am from Logansport, IN and my major is Photography. I chose this major because photography is my favorite thing to do and I would love to do it for a living. My favorite thing about campus is all the different kinds of people around. It makes things more interesting. For fun, I listen to music (always), hang out with friends, take pictures, and read.

That’s it!

Amber